16872: Pizza Hut, Hut, Hike, Er, Punt!

 

Advertising Age reported Pizza Hut hired—or technically rehired—White advertising agencies, tapping Deutsch and VML for creative and customer marketing duties, respectively.

 

The moves coincide with Global Chief Brand Officer and US Chief Marketing Officer re-appointments at Pizza Hut.

 

The recycling revolving-door routine is sure to rerun ruinous results.

 

Has anyone considered simply improving the pizza?

 

Pizza Hut Hires Deutsch and VML In Agency Roster Shakeup

 

Agency changes come as the chain looks to rebound from a sales slump and reach new audiences

 

By Ewan Larkin

 

In a revamp of its agency roster, Pizza Hut has hired Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Deutsch and WPP’s VML to oversee creative and customer marketing, respectively. 

 

Deutsch will manage brand strategy and creative, assuming responsibilities previously held by GSD&M. In August, Pizza Hut parted ways with the Omnicom-owned agency, bringing to an end a relationship that had spanned six years. Deutsch’s remit will include paid social and video content, according to Pizza Hut. 

 

The appointment reunites Deutsch and Pizza Hut. The two worked together from 2014 to 2016, before Droga5 won the business. Deutsch, which picked up a project for Pizza Hut (below) before nabbing the full account, is also the lead agency for Yum Brands sibling Taco Bell. It won the Pizza Hut business without a formal review, as did VML.

 

VML, which has also previously worked with Pizza Hut, will oversee customer promotions, loyalty and CRM efforts, and digital assets. It’s a new role on the roster, designed to “further invest in the full digital consumer journey,” the chain told Ad Age.

 

The WPP agency will also handle organic social, taking away some work from ​​Mischief @ No Fixed Address, which was named social agency of record in November 2023. Pizza Hut confirmed that Mischief will no longer handle social, but added it will continue to tap the agency as a “valuable partner for earned buzz work.”

 

Mischief’s work for the chain has included campaigns such as “ResZAmes” and the “Personal Pan Pizza Hut.” The indie agency referred calls to comment to the client.

 

Pizza Hut will continue to work with Alison Brod Marketing + Communications for U.S. PR and Publicis Groupe’s Spark Foundry for media, it confirmed. The brand also works with RQ for influencer marketing and Tracey Locke for shopper marketing.

 

Pizza Hut had U.S. measured-media spending of $99 million in the first two quarters of 2024, according to data from MediaRadar, down 21.2% from the same period in 2023. The company spent $234 million on U.S. measured media for all of 2023, MediaRadar reported. 

 

The brand has made marketing leadership changes this year, including naming former PepsiCo executive Kalen Thornton as global chief brand officer. It also appointed Melissa Friebe as U.S. chief marketing officer. Friebe joined after nearly three decades at Taco Bell, most recently as chief brand strategy officer. 

 

Bringing on Deutsch and VML “signals the priority we place on creative work and customer engagement strategies,” Friebe said in a statement. The agencies will work together to drive a “new era of growth,” according to Pizza Hut, which in August told Ad Age it was focused on “modernizing the brand and reaching new audiences.”

 

The agency changes come as Pizza Hut has struggled to attract consumers. The chain’s U.S. same-store sales were down 1% for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, while Taco Bell reported that U.S. same-store sales were up 4%. Competitor Domino’s U.S. same-store sales were up 3% for the same period, while Papa Johns’ North America comparable sales were down 6%.

 

Other Yum Brands brands have made agency changes in recent months. In September, KFC moved to an agency roster model for its U.S. creative business, removing IPG’s MullenLowe as its lead shop. 

 

Contributing: Erika Wheless and E.J. Schultz

16871: Dumb Ideas Done Dirt Cheap.

 

Adweek published a pathetic perspective whining about White advertising agencies and brands allegedly perpetuating a ‘Free Ideas Economy’ that undervalues concepts.

 

The argument is supported by a Sweetgreen scenario mirroring a 2022 Coinbase controversy that was also pitifully critiqued by outraged ad executives.

 

The self-promoting author perceives a double whammy: White advertising agencies give away ideas via pitch spec work, and brands don’t provide fair compensation for ideas delivered in shootouts. The proposed solution involves reimagining current client-agency account review schemes.

 

Here’s the problem. The author runs a pseudo White advertising agency taking a fast-food approach with sprint ideation and execution; that is, brands can get stuff quick and presumably cheap.

 

Discounting the creative process is what White holding companies have been doing for decades, leading to a commoditization of talent and services.

 

Ironically, the author seems oblivious to presenting an unoriginal idea—and giving it away via Adweek vendor content.

 

Sweetgreen’s Newest Product Is Indicative of a Larger Problem in Our Industry

 

Brands and agencies need to move beyond the ‘Free Ideas Economy’ 

 

By Dana Hork

 

Last week, Sweetgreen’s newly unveiled Kale Camo Hoodie hit my social feed. My first reaction was: “What a clever way to super-serve mega fans.” The company proudly heralded the idea in a press release and touted the new merch on social media just before the holidays.

 

An hour later, another post hit my feed. Apparel retailer Market called out Sweetgreen

on Instagram with a post that read, “WE PITCHED SWEETGREEN A COLLAB IDEA AND THEY JUST ENDED UP STEALING IT.” The post was accompanied by screenshots of an email exchange with Market’s CEO about how they’d pitched this exact same concept to Sweetgreen a full year earlier—complete with a detailed deck, kale and all.

 

 

The backlash was swift from both culture media and the social media sphere, with audiences accusing Sweetgreen of idea theft and being downright hypocritical. But this incident is about something much more than a not-so-good look for Sweetgreen. It’s about how the advertising industry has created a “Free Ideas Economy.”

 

Agencies and brands have been complicit in normalizing the expectation that generating creative ideas is a cost of doing business. We’ve resigned to the fact that creating campaigns on spec is the way for an agency to get its foot in the door, hoping to be rewarded with a long-term, sticky agency of record contract.

 

I look at this Free Ideas Economy as both an agency founder and an in-house brand leader. I know how valuable a good idea can be. It can drive sales, win hearts and minds, and even change the world. So why are ideas sometimes the last thing brands are willing to pay for? Why are great ideas something agencies are still willing to give away for free? Why isn’t the industry doing more to prevent this?

 

The Kale Camo Hoodie incident should serve as a wake-up call for our entire industry to rethink how we value, protect, and compensate for creative concepts. Ultimately, the thing we’re all here for in the creative advertising and brand community is the thing nobody wants to pay for. 

 

How does the ad industry solve this and return to a marketplace where agencies are paid for ideas? How do we give agencies the recognition, protection, and financial reward they deserve? Just as importantly, how do clients become equal partners in dismantling the Free Ideas Economy?

 

On the agency side, more shops must adopt innovative models engineered to compensate for ideation, pitching, and being on-call to turn around ideas. Agencies must also diligently use nondisclosure agreements and intellectual property protection clauses in pitch-related documents, even stipulating that the ideas clients don’t elect to use remain agency property. Legal clarity is good, and memorializing these conversations can serve both sides.

 

On the brand side, clients need to view creative ideation as a working cost, a product to be commissioned and paid for. That includes paying a fee to agencies participating in a pitch process. Brands must also collaborate with agencies on new frameworks that shake up the standard and stodgy AOR model. They need to build relationships that incentivize agencies to offer more creativity on tap rather than perpetuating the Free Ideas Economy.

16870: Client-Agency Relationships Zooming To Hell.

Another sign that the Apocalypse is upon Adland: AI Companion from Zoom lets clients deliver prescriptive design revisions to the advertising agency via automated voicemail—while eating lunch.

16869: Moving Forward In All Directions.

 

This NAACP advertisement—which ran in 2021—declared: Advocacy Has One Direction, Forward.

 

Three years later, President-Elect Donald Trump returns to supremacy and shows how power can force moving backward.